The 1990s were a golden era for the great 1990s sci-fi TV shows, from the popularity of Star Wars in the 1970s and '80s to the advancements in CGI that made VFX cheaper to produce on a television scale. Cable's Syfy (then the Sci-Fi Channel) started in 1992, while newer TV networks Fox and UPN (created in 1986 and 1995, respectively) embraced sci-fi as a genre that attracted younger audiences.

The result was an explosion of science fiction television series in the 1990s, as the genre came to dominate the decade, like superheroes in the 2010s or Westerns in the 1950s. New technology and a hunger for content meant producers and writers were willing to take chances, leading to 1990s sci-fi shows that faded into obscurity, despite being fun to watch or having something interesting to say. While some of these shows aired one or more seasons in the 1980s or 2000s, these sci-fi series collectively define 1990s science fiction in a way that continues to influence modern television.

6 Sliders (1995–2000)

Created By Tracy Tormé

Long before the multiverse was the staple of science fiction storytelling that it is today, there was Sliders. For its initial run on the Fox network, Sliders saw young inventor Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell) traveling to different parallel worlds via wormhole with Professor Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), Quinn's girlfriend Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd), and random erby Rembrandt Brown (Cleavant Derricks). In the tradition of some of the 20th century's best sci-fi series, Sliders sought to deliver smart commentary on current events and social inequities by placing our heroes in situations that flipped the status quo.

Although the show's initial excitement faded once the series moved to the Sci-Fi Channel and Jerry O'Connell left Sliders after season 4, the influence that the series had on modern sci-fi can't be understated. Sliders made the concept of parallel realities accessible to a wide audience with its narrative introduction and episodic structure. Shows like The Man in the High Castle and For All Mankind take place entirely within realities where one change altered the course of history, while Fringe comes to rely on the existence of parallel universes as its core mystery unravels.

Since Sliders, the multiverse has become an integral part of decades-spanning franchises, especially in the superhero genre. Alternate realities became a core conceit in the CW's Arrowverse, particularly in The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. The MCU's Multiverse Saga fully embraces the concept of alternate timelines as something that requires little explanation for its audience, with TV series Loki and What If...? being built entirely around parallel realities. Maybe now would be the perfect time for a Sliders reboot series.

5 Farscape (1999–2003)

Created By Rockne S. O'Bannon

Coming in just under the wire with its first season starting in 1999, Farscape starts with American astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) being flung across space to a world as alien to the audience as it is to Crichton. Rather than being about a well-oiled, well-trained cadre of explorers like Star Trek or its contemporary series Stargate SG-1, Farscape patches together a ragtag group of alien fugitives, each with their own goals and desires. It's a beautiful, bonkers series that pushes the envelope of genre storytelling by being both incredibly intelligent and as weird as possible.

Farscape is an unusually timeless entry; it's quintessentially Millennial for its easy comparisons to contemporary brightly-colored, fast-paced, fish-out-of-water stories like Futurama or 1997's The Fifth Element. But it also hearkens back to the 1980s with Farscape's Henson Creature Shop characters, and looks ahead to the future of the genre. Few shows measure up to Farscape's groundbreaking weirdness, but its influence can be seen in 21st-century sci-fi series like Dark Matter and Killjoys. As for movies, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has cited Farscape as a favorite show, since its characters map almost perfectly onto the Guardians.

4 Quantum Leap (1989–1993)

Created By Donald P. Bellisario

Quantum Leap's unique premise saw Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) time-traveling through his own lifetime, with the catch that Sam occupied the bodies of other people living in that time period. Each leap brought Sam to a time and place where his comion and knowledge of the future made Dr. Beckett an agent of change — for the better. There was the barest structure of mythology surrounding the forces that guided Sam through time, but the show didn't need a complicated mystery to succeed. Instead, Quantum Leap used its time travel concept to tell personal stories about ordinary people.

The 2022 Quantum Leap revival starred Raymond Lee as Dr. Ben Song, a physicist who tried to bring Sam Beckett back home. It was canceled after only two 13-episode seasons.

Quantum Leap attracted an adult audience by promising nostalgia, while everyone could get on board with the procedural nature of Sam solving mysteries as he hopscotched through strangers' bodies. But at its heart, Quantum Leap is a TV show about creating positive change through small actions. Quantum Leap's lighter approach to sci-fi, with Sam Beckett's steadfast belief in the goodness of people, exists in The Good Place. Alan Tudyk series Resident Alien is similar in tone, and also highlights ordinary people seen through the lens of someone in a body that isn't theirs.

3 Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)

Created by Gene Roddenberry

The golden age of Star Trek in the 1990s, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, wouldn't have existed without Star Trek: The Next Generation. With TNG, the Trek world expanded far beyond what Star Trek: The Original Series established, with new aliens, worlds, and inventions. The world that Star Trek: The Next Generation built inspired so many modern Star Trek shows: Star Trek: Picard reunited the TNG cast, while Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy took place in the post-Voyager era.

Even Star Trek: Discovery season 5, which took place in the 32nd century, 800 years after Star Trek: The Next Generation, built its mystery around an idea first prompted in TNG season 6, episode 20, "The Chase".

Initially considered a big gamble because of how the new Star Trek show intentionally downplayed Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation reignited interest in Star Trek for a whole new generation of fans, and proved that older sci-fi series could be revived for modern audiences. In the wake of the Trek trifecta, 2004's Battlestar Galactica was remixed into a new series by Star Trek writer Ronald D. Moore, and Doctor Who returned to TV screens in 2005 after a 16-year drought.

The success of Star Trek: The Next Generation is evident in other projects adapting TNG's tried-and-true format. Even while TNG, DS9, and Voyager were still on, Stargate SG-1 and seaQuest DSV applied the Star Trek formula in new environments, with their own worldbuilding. The 1999 film Galaxy Quest was a Star Trek homage that ripples through more recent sci-fi pastiches, like Seth MacFarlane's The Orville — essentially a version of TNG for the 21st century — and Black Mirror's "USS Callister" episodes, providing a scathing commentary on toxic fandom.

2 Babylon 5 (1993–1998)

Created by J. Michael Straczynski

With its unconventional format, daring subject matter, and pioneering use of CGI, Babylon 5 was so far ahead of its time that it has more in common with modern streaming sci-fi shows than contemporary episodic series. Creator J. Michael Straczynski envisioned Babylon 5 as a thoughtfully crafted "novel for television" designed to play out for five seasons. Deeply serialized TV shows like B5 are the norm today, but Straczynski's experiment was a hard sell back when television was strictly linear.

Babylon 5 almost didn't make it through all five seasons before being rescued by TNT, which produced Babylon 5's fifth season and aired daily episodes of B5 from the beginning, so newcomers could experience the full story as it was intended.

But it wasn't just the format that made Babylon 5 a sci-fi show ahead of its time. Straczynski's ambitious epic recognized that humans would inevitably still have our vices and prejudices in the future. Religion, politics, interpersonal conflicts, and interstellar racism were all inherent to Babylon 5's overall storyline, as its disparate species struggled to unify in the lead-up to the Shadow War. In B5's intricate worldbuilding, cooperation was difficult to actually attain without real work. Babylon 5's opening monologue even claims the station is "our last, best hope for peace", after the first four iterations failed.

1 The X-Files (1993–2002)

Created by Chris Carter

The DNA of The X-Files is scattered throughout modern television series, making it the most influential science fiction TV show of the 1990s. Grounded in the FBI partnership of believer Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and skeptic Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), The X-Files perfectly married procedural drama and spooky science fiction at just the right time to influence the best TV shows of the 21st century. Nestled among the "monster of the week" episodes that were The X-Files' bread and butter, the "mythology" episodes slowly doled out clues to the series' overarching mystery, making it an early "mystery box" show.

Series creator Chris Carter's method of revealing The X-Files' answers with cryptic clues evolved into a staple of sci-fi television shows that wanted to keep their audiences guessing. J.J. Abrams' shows Lost and Fringe can both count The X-Files as direct inspiration; so, by definition, the 2010s' bevy of Lost imitators who hoped to capitalize on its popularity are also direct descendants of The X-Files. Meanwhile, Supernatural, Grimm, and Netflix's Stranger Things are just some examples of shows that draw on The X-Files' concept of folklore and urban legends made dangerously real.